Antique tin toy depicts a boy feeding a dinosaur-sized chicken

Here's an antique tin toy currently for sale on eBay. The toy depicts a boy feeding a chicken -- a very big chicken. The actual toy is 7" long and 4" high. If we were to scale the boy up to anything like that of a real human, the chicken would be the size of a Velociraptor (actually, more like its larger cousin, Deinonychus).

Just to show I've done my (frivolous) homework, the image below should prove the point. Bear in mind that the human in the image is supposed to be a full-grown male.

Despite the dubious scale, it's still a wonderful toy. Made in prior to the WWI in Japan, the toy was meant to compete with the famous German toy manufacturer, Lehmann. As you can see in the video, when set running, the chicken pecks at the bird pan as if feeding. According to the description, the toy's mechanism utilizes a verge escapement. It certainly appears to be using an escapement to measure out the pace of the action, but the picture of the bottom of the toy doesn't quite show the mechanism in question.

The toy is in beautiful shape for its age. Tin toys took a lot of abuse. Just imagine how many times this has been used in the last 100 years! Here is where you can get all the details or bid on this antique Japanese tin toy of a boy feeding a chicken.

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"The Last Prussian Conjurer " automaton magician by Thomas Kuntz

Sculptor and automaton artist, Thomas Kuntz, has just finished a new piece called The Last Prussian Conjurer. Like many of his pieces, this one performs a magic trick. Keep your eye on the ball!

From the artist's description:

Inspired in part by WW1 anti-war and allied propaganda art. Additional inspiration came from the Diableries/Totentanz traditions with a healthy dose of Dada, Hans Richter and Monty Python!

Kuntz is both a masterful sculptor and accomplished machinist. This means that everything in the piece was made from scratch -- the figure, brass cams, levers and all. Even the spike on the Prussian's helmet was made from brass turned on an antique precision watchmaker's lathe. A part of the cam making process is shown in the video, as is his fantastic original clay sculpture.

Propaganda art can be so exaggerated and direct in its message. I can see why it might inspire an automaton. To see what I mean, check out these books and posters showing WWI propaganda art.

See more automata by Thomas Kuntz on his web site.

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